Taipei 101

Today was awesome! It was by far the best day we’ve had here yet. The kids slept until 10:30 again, so we all had a great night’s rest. There are black out blinds on the windows, so the kids don’t get up with the sun here in the hotel. Ricky had the day off today, and we decided to go visit Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. It truly is amazing and you cannot understand how amazing unless you see it in person. Here is a pic from outside looking up at the building.

We were so excited when we went inside and realized that it was also a mall! Five stories full of stores. It went from low end to high end stores. One floor was all couture like Gucci, Tiffany, etc. We totally bypassed that one! We also found a food court. Not at all like the food court at our malls though. However, Lily told us she knew where McDonald’s was and sure enough she led us there. Her and Riley ate McDonald’s again! I had Subway, yum, along with a McDonald’s coke! I swear that stuff is the best. Ricky found some sushi. We were all happy and full and ready to do some shopping. I have to show you one picture though. It is self explanatory. I will put the close up as well.

That my friends, is how you get chicken here in Taiwan. It’s not all cut up, deboned, deskinned, and on a platter. No, you order it whole and they cook it whole. That includes heads and feet. The little rooster crown at the top is a delicacy. Yummy! I know you want to go grab some lunch now =)

Here is a pic of the fifth floor of the mall. This is the floor that has the elevator to the observatory. I was so excited to shop, that I forgot to take pics of the rest of the mall. Sorry!

The elevator was so cool. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the fastest elevator in the world.

Here is the screen in the elevator. It lets you know the speed, seconds, how far you’ve traveled, and what floor you are on. We were going 1010 m/m. It really doesn’t feel like you are going that fast.

Here is a pic of the ceiling of the elevator. The lights go out and the stars appear on the ceiling. Riley thought it was so cool.

Here are a couple of pics of the view from the inside observatory. It was really beautiful. Lily took the one of Bumble the cat as proof that he was there too!

There was a writing station where you could fill out postcards and mail them from the top of the building. You send it out to Family, Friend, or Lover. Here are the kids mailing out some postcards. I apologize to those of you who won’t get one. I didn’t know about this so I didn’t have my addresses with me. Lily had a list a mile long, so next time we visit, she will get to send one to everyone!

This is a picture of the damper. We kept seeing the words “Damper Baby” all over the place and we had no idea what it meant. Then we saw this…

Let me explain… Better yet, let wikipedia explain.

A steel pendulum that serves as a tuned mass damper, the cost for it is NT$132 million (US$4 million).Suspended from the 92nd to the 88th floor, the pendulum sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts. Its sphere, the largest damper sphere in the world, consists of 41 layered steel plates, each with a height of 125 mm (0.41 ft) being welded together to form a 5.5 m (18 ft) diameter sphere.

In other words, it keeps the building from swaying. Pretty cool engineering I must say.

We also went up to the outside observatory but it was really hot, sunny, and smoggy. Not good conditions to see much. Lily sure tried though.

Here is a pic of the rest of the building. Not sure what’s up there, but we were definitely high enough.

Here is our family pic from the trip. Not the best, but it will do.

The kids and I are going to head out on the bullet train tomorrow afternoon and go back to Tainan. Ricky has a game here at 5:05 and then they will take a 4 hour bus trip back to meet us. After all is said and done, I am so glad that we stuck it out and made it through the trip. Today was a great family day!

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3 Responses to “Taipei 101”

I think we have all the same pictures! It was an awesome day. Conor is wearing his Taipei 101 keychain on his belt loop. I forgot to tell you yesterday that I bought all the kids those trainer chop sticks I was telling you about!